


Necessary Evil

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Coda, Gen, M/M, Post-TLJ, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 10:23:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13029045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: Kylo may have thought becoming Supreme Leader would change things. He may have been wrong.





	Necessary Evil

Kylo almost feels bad afterward. He hadn’t even been mad at Hux. His anger had been about Luke, it had been about things absolutely unrelated to Hux. (Not that Hux doesn’t still annoy the hell out of him, but…not quite like that.) He steps gingerly into the strategy room, eyeing Hux warily. Hux had had a similar pained expression after the Starkiller fiasco as he does now, pouring over maps and lists of coordinates and supplies. 

“I see you’ve managed to avoid the medbay?”

Hux looks up and the pained expression on his face smooths out into unreadable blankness. Yet, he doesn’t bother standing at attention. “No thanks to you. But I’ll be alright, thanks for asking.”

Maybe, just maybe, Kylo had meant to apologize. Well, perhaps not apologize but make it clear that he’d come to appreciate Hux as a commander, albeit grudgingly, and really, in that particular moment, his anger had been misplaced. Yet, Hux’s blatant flaunting of how much less he respected Kylo than he had Snoke, makes _that_ particular feeling vanish into smoke. “I’m your supreme leader,” Kylo growls. 

Hux stops what he’s doing and looks up at him, suddenly deadly serious. “I’m not afraid of you. Did you think I was?”

“You should be.”

‘Why? Because you’ll choke me or throw me into another wall? Neither of those is very pleasant but I also know that you realize that you need me.”

“Do I?”

“Yes. You’re not a strategist, Ren. I am. Don’t take it too hard, though. No one can be everything. Some people are cunning, some are good at…hitting things. You tend toward the raw, unbridled strength side. Admirable for a leader – a _symbol_. Not so much for a commanding general.”

The insolence of the entire tirade leaves Kylo almost speechless. He grasps Hux by the collar and lifts him in the air with the Force, a turmoil of admiration, repulsion and offended pride swirling within him.

“And if you don’t understand that,” Hux continues, though his voice is now higher-pitched than usual. “Then you will destroy the First Order, burn it to the ground. So you better get on with killing me because I would rather die that see that happen.”

The look on Hux’s face in that moment makes this the most raw thing he has ever said to Kylo. Kylo sneers and lets go of him. Hux stumbles as his feet hit the floor. Feeling as though torn apart from within, Kylo storms from the room, cursing under his breath. 

Bloody General Hux will be the death of him.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on impulse at midnight right after seeing TLF. Take it for what it is.


End file.
